[Beowulf] newbie's dilemma

[John Hanks]

On Thu, 2006-03-16 at 08:03 -0800, David Kewley wrote:
> A late reader chimes in...  Regarding maintenance and power, here is my 
> experience with Dell nodes.
> 
> Dell, of course, makes it very easy to buy e.g. 3 years' maintenance, at 
> various service levels.  If anyone *does* get more than a handful of Dell 
> nodes, I'd recommend getting in addition Dell Warranty Parts Direct (search 
> for it).  For $180/year, and an online self-test, two of your people get 
> the ability to order replacement parts directly through the Dell website, 
> and to get on a devoted phone help queue (rather than the ordinary, 
> possibly time-consuming queue).  There are some limitations; see the 
> website.

At the risk of sounding like a Dell advocate, I highly recommend this to
anyone with a lot of Dell machines. Our campus pretty heavily uses Dell
and the central helpdesk did the certification steps and coordinates
replacements. Through a simple web submission to our helpdesk, I get to
swing by the next day to pick up the new part and drop off the old one.
They are currently working with Dell on stocking some commonly replaced
parts so in the future things like power supplies or hard drives may be
in stock for immediate replacement. 

jbh